Smell that? TSA checkpoints across the United States are free of their signature aroma for the first time in over two decades. On July 8, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security lifted the 19-year-long shoe-removal rule at airport security, ending an era of socks and bare feet shuffling across busy terminal floors. It’s a small policy change with heavy cultural weight: with shoes staying on, intentional dressing at the airport may be back on the table.
Trend forecaster Mandy Lee’s (also known online as @oldloserinbrooklyn) airport shoe of choice this fashion month? Nike Air Rifts, the split-toe sneaker-Mary Janes that have quietly surged in popularity this year, thanks to TikTok. “They’re easy to slip on, stylish enough to dress up, and comfortable for an entire flight,” Lee explains. If more elevated footwear makes it through the gate, might the rest of the outfit follow? The real question is not whether airport style can return to ‘50s and ‘60s glamour, but if it can mesh with post-9/11 practicality.
From 1955 through the early 1970s, during a period dubbed “The Jet Age,” the clothes you wore to the airport were synonymous with occasionwear, chosen with the same sense of importance. The occasion? The flight itself. Pumps, suit sets tailored to perfection, and dramatic fur stoles lined the aisles of flights long and short. “Airports were definitely looking into luxury, cutting-edge architecture, and signaling that idea of progress and modern advancement,” says Summer Anne Lee, a fashion historian and adjunct instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. On airplanes, space and comfort grew, but so did airfare, making air travel itself the ultimate flex. Airplanes were even the backdrop in glossy editorials, like the July 1957 and January 1962 issues of Vogue, further cementing the image of air travel as undeniably fashionable and aspirational. It’s important to note that mid-century fashion was anything but casual comfort. “People got more dressed up to leave the house in general then,” explains Lee. “So while they might not wear a fur stole to the corner store, men were still wearing suits and ties to baseball games.”
Even Don Draper ends up in jeans and a white tee by the Mad Men series finale. The formality of the 1950s and ‘60s unraveled in two waves–first, the casual turn of the 1970s. “There was more democratization of air travel in the ‘70s because airlines were encouraged to adopt competitive pricing,” Lee says. Flying became less exclusive, and therefore less aspirational. Meanwhile, fashion itself was loosening its metaphorical tie. Levi’s and other denim became everyday staples, as men traded suits for knitwear and women increasingly wore trousers and adopted menswear elements to their looks, à la Diane Keaton.
